The Spirin’s Concept of the RNA World

The paper summarizes the main provisions of Alexander Spirin’s concept on the possible role of RNA, molecular machines, and molecular colonies in the emergence of life, including (1) the role of the capability of polyribonucleotides of spontaneous rearrangements and recombinations in the generation of RNA molecules and development of their structure, as well as in the early replication of RNA; (2) the principle of operation of molecular machines powered by the energy of Brownian motion and the need for their emergence to solve the problem of unwinding double-stranded molecules formed as a result of the complementary copying of RNA; (3) the role of molecular colonies formed during the replication of RNA in porous media as a mode of compartmentalization and as a prerequisite for the evolution in the precellular RNA world.